


Pet Therapy

by Keefa



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Animal Therapy, Established Relationship, M/M, Shance Secret Santa 2017, Students Union
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 17:46:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13082031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keefa/pseuds/Keefa
Summary: The holidays are coming up and with finals, trying to book flights, and everything else going on, Lance is a little stressed. Shiro comes up with an idea to make him feel better.For Shance Secret Santa 2017





	Pet Therapy

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my piece for the Shance Secret Santa 2017! My piece is for [ I kinda took your "maybe they play with an animal!" and took it to a new level. I hope you enjoy it! (￣ω￣)](https://n00dl3gal.tumblr.com/)

 

“This is too hard. I give up, I’m dropping out.” Lance said, sprawling dramatically on the crappy students union couch next to Shiro.

Shiro didn’t look up from his laptop. “I may join you.” He said. “Why didn’t you tell me it would be impossible to be VP of the Students Union and a grad student at the same time? This is impossible.”

“I did, we all did!” Lance snorted. “But you didn’t believe it. You thought you’d somehow be able to schedule your classes around your SU responsibilities.”

“I was right,” Shiro chuckled. “I just didn’t make time for sleeping, eating, showering or -”

“Or spending time with your boyfriend?” Lance teased.

“Or spending time with my wonderful and understanding boyfriend.” Shiro smiled.

“I am pretty great,” Lance preened. He shifted in his seat and held his arms open, for Shiro to cuddle into. “I’m just glad the semester is almost over, and I get you all to myself over break.”

Shiro dropped his laptop beside him to lean on Lance, and save his eyes from the glare. They were starting to burn, the words on the page blurring in into a black-on-white blurry mess. He really could use a break, and ten minutes wouldn’t hurt. Plus, he was still in the Students Union, and Lance was the Communications Officer, so this could still be classed as working, right?

“Yeah,” Shiro said. “But before that I have to have a thousand and one meetings with every student group on campus about their winter parties. And that’s going to take forever.” Shiro turned to face Lance while not moving from the comfort of his arms. “Did I tell you the Jewish Society booked the same venue as the Baptists did? And somehow I have to be the mediator between them?”

Lance laughed so hard it Shiro felt it all over his body. “Oh boy, I do not envy you.”

“It’s a nightmare!” Shiro wailed. “I’m not even religious, so I don’t know how to correctly handle this. And then the president of the Jewish Society yelled at me for presuming it was a Hanukkah party, because it was near Christmas.”

“What holiday was it?” Lance asked.

“There isn’t one, it’s just a end-of-semester party for the Society.”

Lance chuckled. Shiro turned back around and lay back down, his head resting on Lance’s chest. He wasn’t laying down, but he wasn’t sitting straight either. The comfortable position and Lance’s familiar presence, paired with how tired Shiro realised he was made Shiro’s eyes droop.

Shiro made himself more comfortable against Lance, snuggling in closer. He could hear Lance’s heartbeat. It was soothing. Lance’s fingers knotted Shiro’s hair, and he hummed something. It was the calmest Shiro had felt in… hours. But those were like lifetimes in college-time, alright? He hadn’t felt this calm since he’d fallen asleep against Lance like this, last night. He woke at 6am after a stress dream, and despite everything, he couldn’t unwind, and had started sorting through his ever-growing amount of emails, essays, assignments and exams. But, now, here, with his boyfriend, in the campus morning lull, in their quiet corner, he could relax.

“Don’t tell anyone if I fall asleep, alright?” Shiro mumbled. It was early enough in the day that there wasn’t too many people milling around the SU. Around 3pm, the place was full. People watching TV, playing pool or air hockey, or just generally hanging out in the common area. But, it was just past 10am and most people were asleep or in class. Shiro was so jealous. He would rather be in class right now. Well no, he’d rather be back in his crappy apartment with Lance, but he’d take a lecture over this work right now.

“Oh no you don’t”, Lance admonished. “I didn’t come all this way for you to fall asleep on me. We can do that at home, I want to spend time with you.”

Shiro groaned, but he knew Lance had a point. They hadn’t seen each other properly in days, and the fact that Lance was here, even for five minutes? Shiro wasn’t going to waste that.

With an almost herculean effort, Shiro moved back into a sitting position. He missed Lance’s warmth and comfort before he even moved, but he didn’t want to waste the only time in days he’d see his boyfriend by napping.

When Shiro sat up, and rubbed his tired eyes, he saw Lance grinning at him.

“Hi,” Shiro smiled.

“Hi,” Lance giggled. He leaned forward to kiss Shiro quickly. Shiro hummed into the kiss, and held Lance close for a few more seconds. He left his hand on Lance’s waist when they pulled apart.

“Why are you dropping out?” Shiro asked.

It was Lance’s turn to groan. His hand moved to grip the back of Shiro’s neck. “It’s too painful,” Lance declared. “I don’t want to even think about it, it’s too much for me.”

“Come on,” Shiro nudged him. “A problem halved is a problem shared.”

“Pretty sure you got that backwards, you defective motivational poster you,” Lance laughed.

“Whatever,” Shiro laughed. “The point is you should tell me. I told you why I was stressed...”

Lance sighed. “Alright, but it’s just... I feel silly now? You have so much more work to do than I do!”

“That’s not true,” Shiro said quickly. “You do just as much work as I do. You have just as many classes and work even more than I do! You shouldn’t feel like you problems are less than mine, just because they're different.”

Lance sighed again, but this time there was a slight exasperated laugh to it too. “Alright, alright!” He said. “Jeez, what’s with you today, and all these platitudes?”

Shiro waited, his hand moving up and down Lance’s back in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

Lance glanced up at him, unsure, before the dam broke. “It’s just… there’s so much going on in class, I have so many projects and I keep forgetting what I’m supposed to be doing where. I mixed up my radio project and my blog assignment, and had nearly a thousand words written on the wrong topic before I realised. And that’s just class! I keep making mistakes at work too, like, I emailed the wrong press release to two societies, and went to do a radio interview about the university a day early last week and it’s just… it’s so overwhelming? Like I love working with these stuff, but right now there’s just so much and I just need a break but I don’t have time to take a break. And then I’m trying to book our flights to my parents house too, and that’s a nightmare because god knows air travel isn’t stressful enough, and then my mom calls me and tells me Daisy had to go to the vet, so I started freaking out about that, and -”

“Lance, breathe!” Shiro said. “You need to take time to breathe between words, baby.”

Lance looked annoyed but didn’t break eye contact as he took an exaggerated breath in.

“I’m just feeling super overwhelmed right now, and need a break.”

Shiro waited but Lance didn’t say any more.

“There was no need to interrupt me,” Lance teased. “I was almost done.”

Shiro laughed. “If you say so, but I think we both know you would have kept going.”

Lance chuckled too, and he seemed a little more relaxed after his rant, but he still didn’t seem at ease.

“I’m sorry about Daisy,” Shiro said, bumping his forehead against Lance’s. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah,” Lance said. “Just some bug or something, but she’s getting old y’know? Twelve years is a long time for a labrador. I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.”

“I know,” Shiro said. “It’s hard with pets, because you never get to tell them how much you care.”

“That isn’t helping,” Lance said, sniffling.

“Oh shit, sorry!” Shiro pulled Lance closer. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. Your mom isn’t the type to sugarcoat things anyway. If Daisy was on her way out, she’d tell you.”

“That’s true,” Lance said, still sniffling. “I just wish I could see her now. I don’t want to wait two more weeks.”

“Two weeks isn’t a long time,” Shiro lied, ignoring the pit in his stomach. He didn’t want to think about what he needed to have done in two weeks time.

“It is in dog years,” Lance mumbled. Shiro laughed at that.

“She’ll be fine,” he repeated.

They sat together in comfortable silence, for a few moments, just enjoying the company. Shiro marvelled at how true his earlier statement was. A problem shared is a problem halved. He felt better about what he had to do, after telling Lance, and Lance seemed to be in the same boat. Shiro was still stressed, but the break and the company gave him a bit more clarity about how best to go about what to do. Whoever came up with that slogan was a genius. Maybe they should put it up on motivational posters around campus. And weren’t they going to do a mental health workshop soon? He just needed something to entice people to care, and that could work. And with everyone so stressed with class, now was the perfect time.

Lance sighed once more, knocking Shiro out of his impromptu planning.  
“I could really use some puppy cuddles right about now,” he said. “I always felt better about stuff in high school when I could play with Daisy.”

And with that, Shiro had a plan.

 

* * *

 

 

After a week of rushed planning, covert phone calls and less sleep than usual, the day had come.

Ever since their conversation that morning, Shiro had spent every second he could organising this event for Lance. Well, for the other students too, but mostly for Lance.  
Being completely honest, most things he did were mainly for Lance. When they positively impacted other people, that was a great bonus but his main goal with everything he did was to make Lance smile. And boy, was this going to make him smile.

It was impossible to hype this up, what with Lance basically running to college’s Twitter and Facebook pages, so it was a surprise event. Shiro has only told his close friends (two of whom thankfully happened to work for the Students Union as well). Pidge, Hunk and Keith had all agreed to help him set everything up on the day, while Allura had promised to keep Lance away from the building if needs be. Thankfully, it was happening early enough, so it wouldn’t be too hard. Keith had grumbled that she got the easy job, but Allura pretended not to hear him.

 

Shiro had snuck out of bed at 6am to start setting up, and the organization arrived at 8 to do what they needed to do. By 9am, a lot of heavy lifting and a few distractions later, the doors were open and they were ready to go.

Shiro smiled, looking around the room. Today was going to be a success. He quickly text Allura, letting her know it was safe for Lance to come over now, and then went to wait for his arrival. Hunk and Pidge were busy taking pictures and putting it on social media, trying to get the word out before Lance got there, and a few people were already there, having seen what was going on as they passed. Shiro couldn’t be more proud as he looked around the room. Or so he thought, until Lance walked in.

He looked anxious, rushing toward Shiro as soon he saw him through the door. “Where did you go this morning?” Lance demanded. “You were gone when I got up, and you never usually leave without saying anything, I was worried!”

Shiro said nothing, just raised his eyebrows and nodded to the room around them. Lance looked confused, but finally took his eyes off Shiro to take in the room at large. When he saw what was going on, he gasped.

“What… what is this?” he said, breathlessly.

“Surprise?” Shiro said, arms raised.

The room was filled with dogs, and people on the floor playing and cuddling with dogs of all sized, breeds and ages. It was a puppy therapy day. Shiro had called every shelter, therapy clinic and anyone else he could think of to get an animal assisted therapy day on campus, to help people who felt anxious because of deadlines and just the stress of this time of year.

“You said you wanted puppy cuddles, and I know it isn’t Daisy, but I hope it helps.”

Lance snapped back to face Shiro, awed. “You did this for me?”

“Of course,” Shiro said simply. “I mean, everyone else can benefit but you gave me the idea. And I knew you’d need it.”

Lance turned away, hurriedly wiping at his face. “Shiro, I can’t believe this…” he said.

Shiro smiled. “C’mon,” he said gently. “Let’s go meet these lil’ guys…”

Lance was trying to discreetly wipe the tears from his face as Shiro led him over to the biggest dogs available. There was a handler with him, the other dogs busy. But Shiro has asked Olly be kept free.

“Oh, aren’t you the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen?” Lance said, immediately dropping to his knees. His hands went straight for the dogs fur, and Olly was happy to sniff at Lance’s face at the attention. “What is he?”

“A white German Shepherd!” the handler smiled. She began to explain Olly’s history at the shelter to Lance, but Shiro zoned out. He didn’t need to hear it, he just needed to see Lance happy. It didn’t take much to convince Lance not to go to his one class, and he could pretend he was working. But honestly, no one would care. It was a day of self care, and self care involved puppies, damnit!

They moved around the room, from therapy dogs, to adoptable ones, from big to small, from old to those just out of puppy-hood. Lance, of course, fell in love with every single one. They spent hours, going around and around the room, meeting every dog, playing with each of them, getting kisses from excited puppies and nearly being knocked over by the gentle giants who had no concept of how large they were.

“We’re getting a big dog as soon as we get a place of our own,” Lance decided.

“Agreed,” Shiro smiled. “I’ve always liked Irish Wolfhounds.”

“How about a Samoyed? Or a Newfoundland?”

“Lance…”

“You’re right, why choose? Let’s get all three!”

Shiro sighed. “How big is this house we’re getting in your dream future?”

Lance pouted. Shiro rolled his eyes. “Okay, yes, we can get multiple big dogs.”

“WOOHOO!” Lance cheered, and hugged the Chow Chow puppy he was holding.

“You want me to go get you lunch?” Shiro asked, knowing nothing short of the apocalypse would tear Lance away from these dogs.

“I knew I loved you for a reason,” Lance grinned.

Shiro snorted. “I’ll be back soon.”

Shiro left, and took his time in grabbing a sandwich and some snacks for himself and Lance. It was probably a bad idea, giving Lance that much time alone with all those dogs, but Shiro knew it would be good for him too. Let him get all those good cuddles, without worrying about Shiro.

So, he spent a few minutes looking at Facebook on his phone, completely avoiding his emails, and enjoyed the videos and photos being posted on the Students Union page.

When Shiro eventually returned, after a leisurely cup of coffee, Lance was on the floor, multiple dogs piled upon his chest and stomach. He must have heard Shiro walking over, because as soon as he was next to him, Lance said “I’m in heaven.”

“You gonna get up to eat?”

“Nope.”

Alright then,” Shiro said. “Guess I’ll eat thi-”

“Don’t you DARE!” Lance shouted, startling a few of the dogs, and they stood up, alert. “Now look what you made me do!” Lance wailed, arms flailing.

“It’s not like they’re going far,” Shiro consoled.

Lance pouted, but raised his hands for Shiro to pull him back to his feet. They sat happily, watching as more and more people came to get some animal attention. Shiro had yet to feel more proud of anything he’d done in the students union. This puppy therapy day was a success.

There was representatives from the mental health clinic there too, spreading information about their services and how to create a positive change, or something, and how to deal with stress. Shelters were obviously talking about their adoption and fostering programs, and it seemed to be going well. Some people were almost refusing to let anyone near their chosen dog. Students were happy and smiling, and there was a positive buzz in the air. Music was playing in the background, but it was almost drowned out by the laughs and the barks. It was a nice change, to the holiday and deadline stress.

“This was amazing, Shiro,” Lance said, suddenly. “Well done…”

“It was nothing,” Shiro smiled.

“I’m serious,” Lance said, turning to face him. “I know how stressed you were, and the fact that you did this, took on all this responsibility, because you thought it might make me feel better? You’re incredible. I’m so lucky to have you.”

Shiro was stunned for a moment. “I’m lucky to have you,” he said. “You make me do crazy things, just to see you smile. That makes it all worth it.”

Lance leaned forward, kissed Shiro and said “Cheeseball.”

“You started it!” Shiro laughed.

“Whatever you say,” Lance teased, but kissed him again.

Yeah, Shiro was lucky to have him.


End file.
